Both the High Country Medical Trust ( HCMT ) and High Country Health Ltd ( HCH ) have not just had better financial performance but have once again delivered better health care for both the patients and residents of the Mackenzie.

The Medical Center is often operating at full capacity with not only our great clinical team and admin staff busy, but with additional health services like a Physio (four days a week), Mole Map, Health Coach, Health Improvement Practitioner, Cardio-Respiratory specialist, and Dietitian regularly visiting to see patients.

New service

We are constantly looking at ways to improve what we offer to our patients and one of our new services is ear suction.  This was offered free in October and November while our team honed their skills and is now available for patients to book.

New diagnostic equipment

As a rural practice taking part in the Rural Unplanned Urgent Care project looking to improve the service provided to rural New Zealander’s we have been able to train an additonal three staff in the use of our portable ultrasound equipment, providing us with four trained staff able to add this valuable tool to assisting in making a diagnosis.  We have also purchased and trained staff in the use of a number of new blood testing devices which will give us a broader scope to confirm or eliminate issues.  Anything that can help with diagnosis, as these new tools do, will reduce the need for our patients to travel to Timaru or other locations for confirmation testing.

Coming Soon – X-ray

Another service the Centre will soon be providing is X-rays, thanks to a generous donation from the Hanmer Springs Medical Practice. They were donated a new machine, and “paid if forward” by gifting us their old x-ray machine which works perfectly. The machine has been delivered and we are looking at funding for set-up, training and safety equipment. Once up and running this will make a huge different to Mackenzie Basin residents and visitors. We envisage the Center will be able to do X-rays of extremities (limbs), with X-rays sent by email for an immediate response. This will cut out the need to travel to Timaru and sit in ED for hours.

Meridian Solar Donation

For the Trust two major financial benefits have come from the huge Meridian decarbonization grant we received to install the Solar and battery system at the Center. It has had the immediate effect of slashing our power bills at the Center, but has also proved to be a safeguard against the possibility of a major long term power outage. The solar and the batteries provided the Centers power needs all day in a resent planned day long power outage, without the backup generator switching on. The spin off for the Trust is these saving are being passed back to the Trust by way of a higher building lease from HCH, enabling the Trust to fund more projects that improve health care for Twizel and the Mackenzie Basin. Once again, a big Thank you to Meridian.

Facility Improvements

The long-awaited garage project is now at the “looking for funding” stage. With consent and a building company picked after a tender process.

The cost of the build due to the commercial category under the building code came in at $225,000 including landscaping, with all the fire regulations include a sprinkler system inflating the total price.

We have put applications in for different community trusts, but it’s going to be a challenge to pull the funds together. Hopefully everyone will see how important it is to get the emergency afterhours/PRIME cars inside out of the winter frost/snow and the summer heat, so our team can respond to an emergency in a timely and safe manner.

View from Helipad

If there is any community group in Twizel or the surrounding area that would like to take on a community fund-raising project to help this project along, we would be keen to here from you.

With the centres success comes new challengers. The Centre/Health Hub is quickly running out of room, with all consult rooms often full. The Trust did a future plan a few years ago and already we are exceeding predicted grow.  The Trust is therefore taking active steps to provide the facilities needed for future expansion.

Serving the Region

HCMT and HCH are working to constantly improve the health care service they provide to the region and will continue to look at options which improve health outcomes for our patients.  Reducing travel to larger centers for diagnostic tools and X-rays will reduce stress and cost to our patients while also increasing the skill set of our clinical team.